06/11/2019
Loving God, and loving one another go hand in hand, both of these originate in God, and neither can exist in us without His love having first been given to us. Do you have trouble expressing love? Do you consider yourself a tough and worldly person? Perhaps you have confessed your faith with your mind, but your heart and soul are yet to experience Him.
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
I John 4:19 NKJV
Reasoning the existence of God is a mental exercise, and simply agreeing that He is there is not the same as knowing Him by being in relationship with Him. I was watching a documentary on television in which a group of scientists were presenting evidence of a massive, and previously unknown, planet in the far reaches of our solar system. They went through all the math, and other evidence that pointed towards its existence, but none had actually found it, or seen it in any way... yet, they felt it must be there. This is like our reasoning God, but not really knowing God... this is the mental exercise of deduction without the seeing, smelling, touching, and emotion that comes from an actual encounter with Him. This is knowing He exists without knowing that He is Love, and that He is Light, or any of His other intimate characteristics... this is Theology, or even religion, without relationship.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
I John 4:7-8 NKJV
Jesus challenged Peter three times concerning his love for Him by asking him repeatedly if he loved Him, and then telling him how to show that love.
“He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”
John 21:17 NKJV
When we come to love someone it must be more than just words, there must be action associated with it. Even God’s love comes with action. He loves us, and by the very nature of love it must express itself. There is no better example than in this verse...
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16 NKJV
Fiddler on the Roof is a movie I really like to watch, in it there is a scene in which the Jewish man asks his wife if she loves him. You see, their marriage had been an arranged, formed by a match maker out of reason, and logic. They had lived their lives obeying the law as it related to marriage, with little thought to love. Even “making love” had been a physical act that married people do. Finally, the aging man asks his wife if she loves him. In determining the answer she goes through all of the physical signs that would prove the existence of love, and then finally she pauses, looks at him, and says “Yes I love you.” It was a moment of epiphany, and at that moment love was born. In that instant the intangible essence of real love erupted to the surface. You see, love requires action, but in the very same way, action alone is useless without love.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
I Corinthians 13:2 NKJV
Many of us live lives of faith in this same way, and some of us die thinking we know God without ever really having seen Him, or been in relationship with Him... we obey the laws, and follow the scripture without ever knowing what is meant by the two greatest commandments because they deal with the reflection of an invisible, emotional, and heartfelt attribute of God... love. We think our actions alone must mean love.
“Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””
Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV
The Bible tells us of love, it tells us that we should love, and describes the actions that indicate how we can show it, but only God’s instilling of His love in us can actually allow us to understand what it is. All love comes as a gift from God. So when Jesus stands before us and asks “Do you love me?”, what will we say? Will we recount all the actions of love, the things we have done that might prove it, will we quote the insufficient words of a poet, or... will our hearts speak for us in a language that only the Holy Spirit can convey?
Go beyond the reasoning, the mental exercise, and ask God to give you the true experience of love, the heartfelt nature of it that feeds our soul, and that is a reflection of God in us. Let go the worldliness of simple reasoning, and allow something far greater to rule you... a relationship of love that is God.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for allowing us to feel your love, and to experience it in a fullness that we can only guess at on our own. Thank you for the intangible, deep, and all-consuming nature of your love that you give in part to us as a gift. Thank you for your love which manifests itself as life, as your unseen breath. Thank you for our faith that is founded on love, and every interaction we have with you that shows your desire to love us... the goodness, mercy, forgiveness, and grace that flow forth from you by your love. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is Love, and shines its Light upon us. Praised be your name for making us in this your image, and giving us an understanding of love. Even though we can’t catalog it, or reduce it to words, you let us feel it, and have given us your Holy Spirit to speak of it as we pray and walk with you. Our moaning, and deep utterances speaking beyond mere words, and communicating an understanding that befuddles our reasoning mind, and study. Great are you our God who has loved us, even before we knew how to love you.
Rich Forbes